Blackberry Acai Frozen Yogurt with Olive Oil Granola Crumble

Did you know you can easily make frozen yogurt in your food processor at home? All you need is some frozen fruit and acai and a little greek yogurt! Plus there is some major magic happening with an easy olive oil granola crumble made with almonds, coconut, and flaxseed. It all comes together in just 10 minutes!

In 2017, I’m partnering with Pompeian to bring you the latest recipes that are currently #TrendingInTheKitchen with this year’s trendy ingredients and their olive oils and vinegars. Thank you for supporting the partnerships that allow Brewing Happiness to grow and exist. xoxo.

Olive Oil Granola Crumble

Instructions

Heat a small skillet over medium heat, toss your coconut flakes, sliced almonds, flaxseed, coconut sugar, and sea salt with your Pompeian Smooth Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Toss continuously for 3-5 minutes, or until everything is toasted and browned. Take off heat and set aside, this will allow it to form nice granola-like clumps.

Add your black berries, crushed acai, Greek yogurt and honey to a food processor with an s-blade. Pulse just until smooth. You don't want to over blend!

Scoop your "frozen yogurt" into a bowl and top with granola clumps and seasonal fruit!

EAT UP.

My relationship to sugar has been ever evolving. As a kid, I would come home from school most days and sit by the television while downing a full sleeve of Oreos. My parents had a hard and fast rule that I couldn’t have more than *two* desserts after dinner. (Yes, that was an actual rule.) When my sister and I went to Chili’s (a childhood favorite) we would each order our own molten chocolate cake. No sharing allowed. So yes, I have a deeply engrained sweet tooth. I blame my mother. (Hi, mom!)

When I went off to college, and entered my weight watcher phase of life. So I replaced all of my processed sugar intake with fruit and alcohol. (Super healthy. lol) I ate food based on it’s point value and became afraid of eating food that was high in points. This later turned into a calorie counting obsession, and I learned to demonize sugar completely. I can remember a birthday party of mine where all I thought about the whole night was the cake in the other room and when/if I should eat it and how I would resist the leftovers. During this time I would go months living “sugar free” (except fruit) and find my mind obsessively thinking about avoiding it.

I should note that this was a dark time in life, akin to orthorexia where I obsessed over EVERYTHING I ate, not just sugar. But sugar did recieve the brunt of the anxious thoughts in my mind.

It was then that I was introduced to the concept of food addiction. (A friend of mine had a parent who was in recovery.) It was a concept I’d never heard of before, but after learning more I found that sugar (and gluten) were foods that food addicts are suggested to give up. Those are highly addictive substances.

That’s me, I thought. So I did everything I could to rid myself of my sugar addiction. I read this book. I went sugar-free. I went gluten-free. I even started eating potatoes before bed every night ’cause that was supposed to help (that’s a long story for another day.) I became obsessed that something was wrong with me in my desire for sugar.

What happened next is about two years of really dark thoughts and battles with myself. I became a compulsive over eater, in secret – at night. I lost myself in a battle I never needed to start fighting in the beginning.

But after years of therapy, learning about “normal eating”, and implementing Intuitive Eating into my life I have come to a much healthier place. I now have a very amicable relationship with sugar. I sill love fruit. I rarely eat processed or refined sugar, but I never beat myself up when I do eat it. I love to drizzle honey on nearly everything. And I would choose coconut sugar over cane sugar any day.

However, recently I’ve come to a new place in my sugar journey. I’ve started to deal with some hormonal acne and I am tying to heal it naturally. If you follow me on Instagram, you probably heard me talking about this in my story recently. I know that a big trigger of acne is sugar – natural, fruit, and processed. So most people recommend you cut out or cut down on sugar, even fruit.

I’ve found this to be super triggering to me. I just found this safe space with me and sugar, and you want to take it away again??? I don’t know if I’m mentally ready for it. What we do know though, is that adding more healthy fat and protein into your diet can also help with hormones. (Read this My New Roots post about it. ) So that’s what I’m coming to now.

I’m not ready to say goodbye and change this healthy relationship I have to sugar just yet. So instead I’m adding in healthy oils, like Pompeian Smooth Extra Virgin Olive Oil , to my granola where I usually would have put that in raw. I’m adding almonds and flaxseeds for added healthy fats and protein. I know it seems minor, but it’s all these little changes that make a difference.

I’m still gonna eat my blackberry acai frozen yogurt (or is it a smoothie bowl? who cares.) And I’m gonna ENJOY IT. But now, I’m gonna add in some oilve oil and enjoy that luxurious goodness at the same time.

So basically what this whole sugar-rant is saying is that YOU DO YOU. Heal your body your own way. Play by your own rules. Just make sure your are coming from a place of honesty about your mental health. Because food choices made with an unhealthy mind are often unhealthy, even if they seem to the outside world as “super healthy.”